Issue(s): Avengers #46
Cover Date: Nov 67
Title: "The agony and the anthill!"
Credits:
Roy Thomas - Writer
John Buscema - Penciler
Vincent Colletta - Inker

Review/plot:
John Buscema is my favorite Avengers artist. I will like him better in two decades during Roger Stern's run (and with a better inker), but i'm liking his art here too. The opening splash panel has that "real people" feel to it that he's soo good at.

The Avengers have some downtime. Cap is mooning over Sharon Carter (he only knows her as Agent 13). Hawkeye and the Black Widow (still retired) go for a walk with the Scarlet Witch and Hercules, who shaves his beard for the occasion and wears a suit.

Cap and Quicksilver try to go to see a ball game.

But Henry Pym is agitated. He's still cranky at Jan, yelling at her for allowing her chauffeur in to the Mansion and then making her sit with him in the lab while he tries to improve his powers. He's feeling really insecure because he's not as strong as Hercules.

Then, Janet's new chauffeur, who is really the Human Top, reveals his new identity.. Whirlwind. I've always liked the look of this guy.

He traps the Wasp and Goliath in a red ant farm (the Wasp left her stingers in her new costume that debuted last issue; today for some reason she is wearing her old one - maybe Buscema didn't like Heck's design, or maybe last issue was a fill in to give Buscema time to draw this one?). Then he plants a bomb.

Luckily Cap and Quicksilver's baseball game was rained out (even though it isn't raining in any of the outdoor panels shown in the book), because they return home in time to catch Whirlwind before he leaves. Despite Whirlwind's upgraded powers and the fact that he plagued Giant-Man to no end in his old identity as the Human Top, he's seemingly no match for Captain America.

Quicksilver guesses that Whirlwind might be a mutant, and Whirlwind thinks he's right.

Hank and Janet manage to get out of the ant farm and warn the others about the bomb. Quicksilver gets it to the river in time and gets very angry when he hears anti-mutant mistrust from the people on the street.

He is also furious that Whirlwind was able to escape because now he can't defeat him and restore his reputation.

When the Wasp is restored to normal size, something goes wrong. She feels something has affected her power.

Something about Goliath's costume must be confusing to colorists because once again in the reprint pieces of it wind up flesh-colored in some panels.

A big part of this issue is about re-establishing Henry Pym's Ant-Man powers.

It also seemingly implies that the Wasp has some innate control over ants as well. After she kills the queen, the others become docile. And it's not just a general compliance; Hanks says that the one he was fighting dropped him because he was with Jan.

I love the downtime stuff and the build-up of Quicksilver's anti-human feelings is being done fairly well.

Quality Rating: C+

Historical Significance Rating: 6 - John Buscema becomes the regular penciler, the Human Top becomes Whirlwind, Henry Pym improves his Ant-Man powers, the Wasp...(?)

Chronological Placement Considerations: Cap is debating telling Agent 13 that he loves her: "Do I have the right to tell her... while I still wear the mask of Captain America?"

References: N/A

Crossover: N/A

Continuity Insert? N

My Reprint: Marvel Triple Action #38

This costume of Goliath looks like he played with the L.A. Rams, especially the head part. Not that it's a bad thing, I just see a close resemblence.

I've always liked the Whirlwind's new green costume here. Thought he looked silly previously as the Human Top.

I liked the improved Whirlwind and thought he made a more interesting character. I also liked that Jan was now wealthy but they didn't always make us of that but here they do show her having a chauffeur and some expensive clothes.

Whirlwind looked like a speeding aerodynamic bullet upon transcending his Human Top persona in this issue. Buscema manufactured legends.

Is the part about the ray effecting their powers the beginning of Hank and Jan being able to change sizes without pills or gasses? Or are we still too early for that?

No, Jan was first able to change size without pills or gasses in Avengers 26, and Hank showed the same ability in issue 28.